The best 106: The Senior Bowl selection process demystified

Phil Savage, the executive director of the Senior Bowl, is preparing the rosters for the 2013 game, which will be played on Jan. 26 in Mobile. (Press-Register file)

MOBILE, Alabama - For Phil Savage, the executive director of the Senior Bowl, putting together the rosters for Mobile's annual all-star game can be kind of like assembling an NFL team - make that two NFL teams.

"Our goal has been to have a structure somewhat like NFL teams do," Savage said. "The difference is we have to draft in December."

Savage spent 20 years in the NFL as an assistant coach, scout, player-personnel director and general manager before joining the Senior Bowl earlier this year. This week, the Senior Bowl's website provided some insight into the player-selection process for Mobile's annual all-star game with an explanatory post.

The players are invited in several waves, which the Senior Bowl terms as automatic, priority, in-season and emergency.

Savage said automatic invitations, which are issued in late October, go to "name-recognized players. If you were a casual fan, you'd know him."

The invitations aren't issued until several games into the season, Savage said, so the Senior Bowl can make sure the target players are progressing as they should in their senior seasons. Because of that, sometimes a player can become an automatic invite by his performance in those early games. Savage cited BYU defensive end Ziggy Ansah as such a player. Not on the Senior Bowl's preseason Watch List, Ansah already has accepted his invitation to the 2013 game.

Priority invitations follow the automatic invitations. Savage said priority invitations go to players that he has scouted in person.

"For example, Markus Wheaton and Jordan Poyer of Oregon State," Savage said. "I went and saw them. These aren't really name players, but they're good prospects, so let's get them on the list."

By the time December arrived, the Senior Bowl had sent out its third wave of invitations, this time to what it terms in-season prospects. This is the stage in the process where the North and South rosters for the game take shape, where Savage makes sure each team has all its positions covered by pro prospects.

At this point, Senior Bowl personnel are waiting to hear if some invitations have been accepted and tying up the loose ends in personnel with specialists, such as place-kickers, punters, long snappers and fullbacks.

"So now we kind of just sit back and wait for the bowl games to be played," Savage said on Thursday. "Maybe a guy will twist an ankle or tweak a hamstring and he can't play. Or maybe a guy will feel he's high enough rated that he decides not to play."

When those things happen, the Senior Bowl turns to its emergency invitations.

Savage said the Senior Bowl sends its invitation to a player's head coach. It's up to the coach, Savage said, as to when the player receives the invitation.

The explanation of the selection process is another part of the attitude adopted by the Senior Bowl since Savage came aboard. This year, the game issued its first Watch List of prospects and has used its website to post NFL-style scouting reports, done by Savage, on college football players from throughout the nation. The Senior Bowl also has been confirming the identities of players who have accepted invitations earlier than in the past.

"I thought it would be more educational for the public," Savage said, and he cited Elon wide receiver Aaron Mellette as an example of what Senior Bowl officials are trying to do.

Mellette is a prolific pass-catcher, with 210 receptions for 3,037 yards and 30 touchdowns in the past two seasons. But he's off the radar of most fans because he plays for an NCAA FCS school in the Southern Conference. NFL scouts know the 6-foot-4, 220-pound receiver, though, and he's already been announced as a 2013 Senior Bowl participant.

"With our Scouter's Delight, with our Prospect Profiles, with getting the names out sooner," Savage said, "by the time January rolls around, when Aaron Mellette's name is in the paper, people won't say, 'Who?'"

The selection-process PDF contains something of Senior Bowl mission statement called "The Best 106," referring to the number of players at the game.

It reads: "Because the Senior Bowl is a bridge between college and pro football, the rosters are a mixture of potential prospects that project best to the NFL and college standouts with a particular interest in those that are rated above the fifth round. Very little weight is given to a player's hometown, connections to the Gulf Coast, high school recruiting rating, etc. More than anything else, the Senior Bowl is committed to bringing America's best collegiate talent to Mobile for a week of exposure to the NFL community, both on and off the field, and for those players to put on an unforgettable show in front of 40,000 loyal fans on Senior Bowl Saturday."